2009 Regular Season, vol. 6

Today's topic is a fav among barstool philosophers: WHAT BASEBALL RULE WOULD YOU CHANGE? This season already saw the introduction of a big one, that whole "was it a home run or wasn't it" instant replay jazz, which has been well-received for the most part.

  Here's my gripe, and it concerns official scoring: WHEN A BATTER BATS-IN A RUN, YET SIMULANTANEOUSLY HITS INTO A DOUBLE PLAY, HE IS NOT CREDITED WITH AN RBI. This is, pardon my Norwegian, fucking ridiculous. I have two main arguments for my stance, the first of which is He batted in a run. Period.

  The second comes as an analogy, and I hope I don't get to long-winded. Here goes:

  Driving in a run is good. It helps your team. Fine.

  Hitting into a double-play is bad. It does not help your team. Also fine.

  But the no-RBI-awarded rule implies that, every time, the two potential runs on-/about to become on-base are more valuable than the one run that scored. Interesting. Well, let's supposed you're in a 0-0 game, 5th inning. Runners on first and third, no outs. Your ground ball brings the man home from third, but you've hit into a double play. Now there's 2 outs, but your team leads 1-0. The batter behind you flies out... we move onto the 6th.

  No more runs are scored in the game. Your team has won, 1-0, thanks to your GAME-WINNING AT-BAT. Thanks to your not striking out, or leaving a bunt right in front of the plate, the WINNING RUN WAS ABLE TO COME IN. And this heroic feat is not counted amongst the positive offensive tally on the ol' Topps card?! Outrageous!

  That's about all for today... Joe Mauer's still on another planet with a .366 BA-- a planet where you apparently only need to average 113 gms/season played over the course of your career to lead such a sacred "full season" category. Ouch... cynical today!

  NL Wild Card: Rockies can drop 2 of 3 at AT&T Park this week and still maintain a comfy lead... no, there's not much hope left in Giants Nation. However, I'm buying tickets for one more game this year: Diamondbacks on October 1st.

  Inspired by political factchecking websites, my first post of the postseason will be a comparison of my March predictions with [cue thunder] reality.